Blog > Case Studies > Gimbal Tier List

Introduction

We frequently get the question: What is the best gimbal to buy for filming rollers? Many people assume that rollers can be filmed with any of the DJI gimbals. While this is true to an extent – simply hanging the gimbal out of a car window can get you rolling footage – when it comes to clean and smooth rollers, the options narrow dramatically.

Since there's not much information available online about this topic, we tested all of the DJI gimbals that might be considered for rolling automotive cinematography to determine the best options. We focused specifically on filming rollers, and this article should be considered only in that context. These gimbals might not be the best choices for other scenarios like wedding or travel videography, though they can certainly work in those situations as well.

Evaluation Points

To evaluate these gimbals fairly, we considered a few key characteristics and specifications that make a gimbal the best choice for rollers. Here's how we broke it down:

Price:

Price is of course a big factor when choosing gimbals. So we had to add this in since “the best” gimbal doesn't necessarily mean the most expensive. While this can get you most of the way there, we choose to weigh this in terms of “best bang for your buck” gimbal that will get you everything you need without breaking the bank.

Payload Capacity:

Payload capacity is likely more important than you'd think for rollers. Although it does tell us how much weight the gimbal system can support, it also can double as a metric for telling us how much torque these motors can produce. Torque is very important in this scenario because it helps the gimbal to stabilize the camera end of the gimbal gyro. When a gimbal is attached to a vibrating object such as a car, it needs to be able to counteract the small oscillations that a moving car experiences. Since these vibrations can be fairly high frequency at times, the motors need to have enough torque to adjust the position of the camera fast enough to keep up with every single high speed back and forth motion of the vibrations movements. For heavier camera setups, this means the motors need to accelerate the weight of the camera at extremely high speeds. If the motors aren't strong enough, then they can't meet the vibrations amplitude fast enough to cancel out its motion. This is when we begin to see the infamous micro jitters in our footage.

Along with vibrations, we are also subjecting the gimbal to high speed wind forces. So having strong motors that can push back on those wind forces will keep the camera pointed in the direction you want.

Modes:

Some DJI gimbals come with special modes to help optimize its ability to stabilize. The most common are Supersmooth mode and Car Mount mode. As much as we could discern from speaking with DJI and doing our own research. We can infer that these modes do a few things that help to improve the stability of footage:

1.) They increase the motor torque, or “stiffness” setting. This help to direct more power towards the motors so they can react faster and smooth out higher frequency vibrations.

2.) They “optimized the stabilization algorithm". This is all DJI would tell us. What does this mean? It's likely that they could be doing a few things: increasing its control frequency so it can essentially make more motor adjustments for second, the filter values may be adjusted to change what the gimbal thinks is “noise” in movement so it can pick up on smaller oscillations or PID control settings are adjusted to increase the controller's responsiveness.

We have also found that Supersmooth Mode and Car Mount mode are “the same thing” as stated by DJI and this is likely very true, although its possible Car Mount mode is more acutely tuned for the specific vibration frequency a moving car produces.

There's no saying exactly how these modes function with only public knowledge that DJI lets us in on. All we can say for sure is, these modes work great for improving gimbal jitter performance while filming rollers.

There are also ways to tune in these settings manually to achieve the same or even better results and we will likely make an article about exactly how to do that in the near future.

Mounting:

It's extremely important that we are able to mount the gimbal properly to a shock absorbing car mount system such as the CineKit Shock Killer. Some of the smaller DJI gimbals do not allow for the ability to mount it to a power base and power it externally via a v-mount battery, so these types of gimbals should be avoided at all costs for filming rollers as they do not provide a safe and secure connection.

GPS Module:

An external GPS module has been available from DJI for years now, since the Ronin S. These really help the gimbal models that the module supports take on high speed car rig work, and correct the higher g-forces you’d see in the roll axis. Super helpful, and something to seriously consider if you do a lot of car arm rig work. There really is a noticeable difference in the results and for only around $70, it's really a no brainer.

RS3 Mini

Tier Rating: D
Price: $280
Payload: 4.4lbs
Modes: NA
Mounting: NA
GPS Module: No

The RS3 Mini is the baby brother of the 3rd gen RS gimbals, and when I say bay, I mean tiny. This thing looks like a toy next to the RS3 Pro. Not to say it's a bad gimbal, it's just not what we're looking for when filming rollers. If you run a small mirrorless setup and just need something to travel with at an entry level price point, then this a good option for you, but it simply has no place on a car rig. It has very low power motors at a 4.4lb payload, no supersmooth or car mount mode and no ability to mount to a powerbase or external battery source. Since this is just not the type of gimbal we are looking for, we put it in D Tier.

RS4

Tier Rating: C
Price: $550
Payload: 6.6lbs
Modes: NA
Mounting: Powerbase
GPS Module: No

The RS4 is the first of the 4th gen RS gimbals and is likely the most misconstrued gimbals we've seen people using. It's comparable to something like the RSC2 or RS3 but is even more stripped down in some areas. We've seen a lot of people looking to upgrade from their RS2 or RS3 Pro thinking that the RS4 is the go to, but that's simply not the case. The way DJI has been naming their RS gimbals for each generation has changed every time and I'm not sure why they do this. The RS2, RS3 and RS4 are all gimbals geared for a different type of creator making it very confusing for buyers. The RS4 has the newer 4th gen gimbal features (Vertical mount, comes with a follow focus motor and is compatible with the Raven Eye image transmitter) but now lacks supersmooth mode. It does however allow you to attach to a powerbase which makes it usable, but the lack of supersmooth mode and lower powered motors seriously hurts the viability of this gimbal on a car rig. We've had people switch from the RS4 to the RS4 Pro and say it makes a world of difference in getting smoother footage. For the money, you can get a much better gimbal for rollers, so we put this one in C Tier.

RS4 Pro

Tier Rating: A
Price: $850
Payload: 10lbs
Modes: Car Mount Mode
Mounting: Powerbase
GPS Module: Yes

The RS4 Pro is what I think a lot of people expected the RS4 to be, except even more. This one has the highest torque motors currently available on the RS gimbals, is a little bigger than the RS4 allowing for larger camera setups, and now has Car Mount mode. Now, we're not exactly sure what the difference is between Supersmooth and Car Mount mode as prefaced in the beginning of the article, but it definitely works wonders for getting properly smooth footage. Another aspect of this gimbal is that it's really geared towards being used with a cinema camera. It comes with the follow focus motor and the new LiDAR module to basically turn manual focus cinema lenses into auto focus lenses. You can pair it with the DJI transmission system, hybrid monitor and 4D grips to allow full remote shooting and monitoring. Overall, definitely a higher tech, higher compatibility option which should be the go to choice if you run a larger cinema camera setup. If you're on a more stripped down mirrorless setup, then you likely won't use some of the features found in the RS4 Pro and can surely build out a good camera car in a much more frugal way. Given this one is a little more geared towards higher end setups where the price isn't as much of an offset, we put it in A Tier.

Ronin 2

Tier Rating: A
Price: $8,400
Payload: 14lbs
Modes: Handheld, Car Mount, Aircraft, Tripod
Mounting: Ronin 2 Mount
GPS Module: Yes

The Ronin 2 is DJI’s beast gimbal. This one is really geared towards professional level filmmakers as indicated by its pricepoint. It will fly larger cinema cameras incredibly smoothly and offers a lot more functionality, tunability and integration than any other Ronin gimbal. Needless to say, its in a league of its own when compared to the RS lineup. We haven't yet tested the Ronin 2 on the Shock Killer but we are looking into creating a heavy weight version of it that will be more tailored to larger setups like this.

Conclusion

DJI offers an extensive lineup of gimbals that appeal to any type of creator. Though, there are only a few gimbals that are well suited for filming rollers. The RS2, RS2 Pro, RS3 Pro and RS4 Pro all made it into A Tier as gimbals that we highly recommend for filming rollers and will be right at home on a proper camera car setup.

But, if we had to choose one, which would it be? Taking price into consideration, we believe the RS2 is the best choice. It gives you everything you need in an up-to-date RS package and can be consistently found in plenty for a steal of a deal. It’s truly important to consider this choice as a bang-for-your-buck pick because a gimbal is just a tool. If it has what it needs to get the job done, then what more do you need? There are quite a few parts that make up a fully rigged out camera car with areas where that extra cash can take you much further. Proper mounting and safety of the rig, good image viewability so you can see what you're filming when the roads get bumpy, usable gimbal control and communication equipment between camera car and subject car are all things that are much more important than carbon fiber axis arms or touch screens.

Thanks for reading and we hope that this article helped to clarify the DJI gimbal lineup for you as we know it's not as intuitive as you might expect. So, if it made you want to sell your RS4 and buy an RS2, then that's surely a step in the right direction in our book ;)